1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a centrifugal particle separation and detection device, and more particularly to a centrifugal particle separation and detection device for separating particles according to the particle size.
2. The Prior Arts
Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) constitute an integrated technology applicable in multiple technical areas, and are subject to research and development. MEMS involves optical, mechanical, electric, materials science, control, chemical and biomedical technologies, which can be integrated to manufacture miniaturized products with enhanced performance, quality and reliability at a reduced cost. While micro-electronic technology provides miniaturization of electronic systems, MEMS can bring significant advances in telecommunication, consumer electronic products, industrial manufacture, biomedical techniques, green industry, defense industry, agriculture production, and aerospace industry.
MEMS techniques apply semiconductor processes to produce various miniaturized elements. In particular, MEMS technique uses photolithography processes to replicate the element to form on a silicon wafer, such that multiple miniaturized elements can be manufactured once with the same accuracy.
One attractive application of MEMS technique is to manufacture biological chips. MEMS technique can fabricate the miniaturized pumps, valves, filters, mixers, tubes, sensors, reactors and other elements needed for biological analysis on a chip. The chip can perform sample mixing, transmission, separation and detection.
Currently, micro-filters are widely used in particle or cell separation. For example, in separation or purification methods, the micro-structure is used separate particles or cells of different sizes. These methods without additional marker substances for identification, are instant to apply, and easy to operate. Currently, there are four main types of particle separation techniques using micro-structures type filter: the weir-type filter, pillar-type filter, cross-flow filter, and the membrane filter.
Particle separation can have multiple applications, for example cancer cell detection, blood and lymphocyte isolation, tissue engineering application and fine chemical purification. The sub-population of specific cells in a biological sample solution, and various sizes of particles in a max of chemical materials usually need further separation or purification for analysis. The ideal system for separating micro-particles/cells should be easy to operate, does not require pre-processing of the sample treatment, and can be integrated with the conventional sample analysis system (for example, PCR, FACS). The separation of particles or cells according to the particle sizes does not require specific markers. Moreover, the ability to promptly and easily separate particles or cells plays an important factor in the implementation of separation devices. However, the current separation device is easily to be clogged, which gradually reduce the filtering efficiency. Therefore, there is a need for an improved design of the particle separation device that can improve the clog problem, and is also applicable in the fields of cancer cell detection, blood lymphocyte isolation, tissue engineering and fine chemical purification.